Why guests can find their name even when they misspell it

A guest typing their own name into a form gets it wrong more often than you would think — and if the form rejects them, they do not try again. They message you instead.

So the name field does not require an exact match.

What it forgives

• Misspellings and typos. A letter dropped, doubled or swapped still finds the right person.
• Nicknames. Someone on your list as Maria Cristina can type Tin, and someone listed as Jose can type Joey.
• Honorifics. Tita, Tito, Ate, Kuya, Lola and the rest are ignored rather than treated as part of the name.
• Extra or missing middle names.
• A surname on its own. Someone who types only Uy, Go or Dela Cruz gets everyone on your list with that surname to pick from, not a guess at three of them.
• Capitalisation and spacing.

What it will not do

It will not invent a guest. If someone is genuinely not on your list, they are told so rather than quietly added — otherwise your headcount would drift every time a stranger opened the link.

If what they typed fits more than one person on your list — twin cousins with the same first name, or a whole family who share a surname — they are shown those names and asked which one they are, rather than guessed at. A guest who searched a surname and sees a long list is told to add their first name.

How to help it along

• Enter names the way people say them. If everyone calls her Tin, put Maria Cristina and let the nickname matching do the rest, but do not list her as "M. C. Santos".
• One row per invitation. A couple invited together can be one row; whether they are is up to you. See guests, seats and headcount.
• Import before you publish if you have a spreadsheet, so the list is complete when the first guest arrives.

A note on who can reply

Anyone with your link can submit a reply as anyone on your published guest list — the form identifies people by name, not by password, which is what makes it fast enough that titas actually use it.

That is a deliberate trade. It also means a contact detail a guest types into the form is stored on the reply, never written over what you typed on your own guest list. Your record stays yours; theirs sits beside it, and you decide which to keep.

If your guest list is sensitive, password-protect the site.